I for one would love to see a free play style... I'm not sure it's even possible! I have an E-50 and have tried, mostly without success. The biggest barrier to success is that no Rolands that I know of have a "retrigger" parameter in their style creation section. So when the style contains long, sustained string and organ notes, the arranger reacts inconsistently when you release and play a new chord before the end of the measure.

Diki and I explored this, and I believe we independently concluded the retrigger parameter is buried in the tone itself (search our posts here and on roland-arranger.com

I like the Roland sounds and the factory styles are fine. Some are Excellent! But the only way I can think of to make a freestyle is to audition ALL of the factory styles, mix and match string parts, tweak a note here and there, etc. Basically ASSEMBLE the style from existing parts.

Although theoretically possible, I found that to try to create a freestyle from scratch is frustrating. There are some parameters (like Retrigger) which the factory just does not provide access to through the interface. They are not even mentioned in the manual. And there are no 3rd party tools (like CASM edit for Yamahas) to use undocumented features.

BTW, the BK-7m does not have on-board style creation, so you would have to create the style on an E-50, G-70, etc. And while style creation was added to the Prelude and the GW-8 with Version 2.00, it's very limited and crude- not nearly as good as the tools on E-50, G-70, G-1000, etc. Maybe they could release some software to go with the module, which allows a user to create styles. As Hammer said, PC software could be both more capable AND more user-friendly than the on-board software of any current arranger.

If and when Roland does bring out another TOTL arranger, style creation parameters are one area they need to expand. Just look at the manuals for Yamaha, Korg, Ketron, even the new Casio's. Especially the section on style creation and all of the detailed parameters which Rolands lack. Not brand-bashing, just pointing out a source of frustration for me personally. -Ted